FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out is the anxiety of being left out from what other people are doing through social media. People write about the highlights of their lives on media platforms making their lives look continuously special. This creates anxiety and anger in the spectator who feels their life is boring, and they are missing out.

Though FOMO is exasperated by social media it has always been so.Throughout time. To survive we have to know what is going on around us. In a tribe this could mean the difference between life and death. The feeling of anxiety and fear is a signal that we need to pay more attention to out external world and the people in it. To feel that we are not part of what is going triggers a primitive part of the brain into fight or flight mode.

How ever modern the medium: we are still humans interacting with the medium. Our brains are slow to adapt to the modern world. In fact they are designed for a life no longer lived. Technology keeps pushing ahead while our brains stay fixed in the natural animal world.

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2018
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This article is designed to provoke argument and critique